


Catching Up

by offwhxte



Series: Physics Magic [2]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Clueless Spencer, Cute, Fluff, M/M, Sassy Aaron
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-18
Updated: 2017-04-18
Packaged: 2018-10-20 10:58:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10661175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/offwhxte/pseuds/offwhxte
Summary: The next time I heard Spencer's voice, it was on a phone call at 11:35 pm at night approximately two days after I'd first met him.





	Catching Up

The next time I heard Spencer's voice, it was on a phone call at 11:35 pm at night approximately two days after I'd first met him. Luckily I was awake and on my phone (which was silent) because if Jack woke up I would have been a goner. He was a grumpy, grumpy kid when woken up unnecessarily. I slowly crawled out from under the covers, making sure Jack was warm, before slipping out into the hallway. 

"Hi," I mumbled quietly. "To whom do I owe this great pleasure?" 

"Hey, Aaron, I—wait, what time is it there?" His voice came through crackly, but it was nice to hear his voice. He sounded somewhat gruff himself, maybe he was settling down, but regardless it was a nice sound.  

"About twelve thirty," 

"Oh. Oh!" Spencer pretty much shouted into the receiver, leading me to hold it out at an arms' length distance before bringing it back and shaking my head. The kid was funny, but he was loud. "I totally forgot about time zones. That's really weird. I don't forget too many things. Anyways! Hi—he-hilo. I forgot... I forgot how to say hello, I'm... I'm so sorry." 

He seemed really upset at how he couldn't function when he was flustered, but it made me laugh harder than I had in a long time. "It's alright, Spencer. How'd Godson like his presents?" 

"That's why I was calling, um _wow spencer great job_ ," he mumbled the last part, muffled as he tried to cover the part of the phone he was supposed to speak into. "Um, yeah, Henry loved all of it, but he definitely would have been disappointed if he'd only got the physics thing, so... I wanted to call and say thanks for helping me be an okay gift person." 

"Spencer..." I said, trying to put on some kind of a serious and caring voice as to not laugh at the timid man that had _called me in the first place_ , "You're a great godfather. You're really... you really could be a contender." 

He didn't get the joke. "Thank you! Wow, that's... that's good to hear. Cool. _Groovy_." 

"Do you often use 80s lingo when you get uncomfortable?" I asked, genuinely interested. He was certainly an interesting person. From his fashion sense to his profound understanding of physics, it was a question of what this guy couldn't do with flair. Apparently, he couldn't hold a conversation over the phone for the first time. Because that's when he began to ramble. 

"Actually, the origins of the word _groovy_ came from the 1920s in jazz clubs during the Roaring Twenties," his voice raised and fell with a comical appeal, but it was nice. I felt like I could listen to him talk for hours, and he obviously had the potential to. "It was used to describe music that made them want to move or groove. It was a pretty straightforward train of thought, deriving from the phrase "in the groove," which referred to the way in which the needle of a phonograph machine would fit into the dents of records that were often played in jazz clubs. Later, in the 60s and 70s, it made a comeback as a colloquialism that was synonymous with cool, excellent, amazing, etcetera." 

"Woah," I said, kind of airy, with the voice of some kind of surfer. "You just _know_ that?" 

"I say _groovy_ a lot more than you might think. Sometimes I say _dude_ , and JJ's mind explodes." 

I laughed and settled down in the leather recliner in the living room. We talked for hours; well, he did, for the most part. I threw out words, and he gave me detailed explanations of their origins. Even the slang terms of today that I didn't think he'd understand. There was something special about him. 

The next time I saw him in person, he came in with no packages, bags, gifts, or panic. He was just there, corduroy-less but still quite purple. I walked around the counter and smiled at him, kind of waiting for him to walk up to me, but he seemed frozen. 

"You okay?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. His eyes were wide and he stared and stared for the longest time.  

"I forgot that you're human-sized," he said slowly. "Technology screws with my head. On all the video chats we've had in the past couple weeks, your head could fit in the palm of my hand." 

"You're calling my head big." I deadpanned. 

"Yeah!" He said enthusiastically but quickly withdrew. "Wait, like... in a good way. People actually prefer people with heads that are bigger than a palm, so you don't need to worry—wait." He squinted at me, "You're joking, right?" 

I let the smile shine through and opened my arms. He wasn't a runner, I knew that, so he kind of half-jogged over and settled himself in a hug. This was a great feat, of course. I knew he was some sort of a germaphobe. For only meeting me once in person, I was doing pretty alright. 

"You need to be worse at joking so I can stop acting like a fool," he mumbled. "I'm book smart. Not Aaron-smart." 

"Not yet," I told him, reaching into the front pocket of my half-smock and holding up what I found there. "I made the index cards like you requested, and I am now eager and ready to see how much you really know Aaron Hotchner." 

"Hotchner," Spencer nodded. "Sounds like a kind of alcohol." 

"Would you drink it?" I asked, only kind of joking. 

"I don't really drink, actually. Interferes with my ability to rationalize and think about— _wait_." 

I smiled and ran my fingers through his hair, messing it up but somehow making him seem more at home, "You know your Physics Magic, but do you know Aaron's favorite _color_?"


End file.
